Colloquium

Arlin P.S. Crotts radical hypothesis lecture by Hod Lipson

Speaker:Hod Lipson, Columbia

Date:February 14, 2018

Time:4:15 pm

Location:Pupin 428

Host:David Helfand

ABSTRACT: Can machines discover scientific laws automatically? Despite the prevalence of big data, the process of distilling data into scientific laws has resisted automation. Particularly challenging are situations with small amounts of data that is difficult or expensive to collect. This talk will outline a series of recent research projects, starting with self-reflecting robotic systems, and ending with machines that can formulate hypotheses, design experiments, and interpret the results, to discover new scientific laws. We will see examples from psychology to cosmology, from classical physics to modern physics, from big science to small science.